13" MacBook Pro HD replacement

Mijn probleem

MacBook Pro stopped working... Brought it to the apple store for a diagnosis - suspected the HD had crashed or maybe a bad cable... Out of warranty & an expensive fix to have Apple make the repair... I remembered I had a IFixIt account & the cost for the HD & cable were reasonable... Plus the steps outlined in the videos seemed easy enough...

Mijn oplossing

Great!!! The HD & cable arrived quickly... Tools were included (nice!) with the HD & I couldn't have done the repair without them... Followed the video instructions, popped in the boot up cd, and NOTHING... Did I miss a step? Reviewed steps- check.. Hmmm... Bad HD, bad cable, or both? Unlikely but possible... Reviewed online videos of other folks doing this - BAM! Forgot to format the new HD!! Wait, what's this USB thing that came with the HD kit - looks like I can put the old HD in it and connect it to the laptop... Bingo! Booted laptop using the old HD (which was fine; bad cable), formatted the new HD, installed OS, & migrated the data from the old HD to the new HD - Bob's your uncle!!! Everything thing works!!! Thanks IFixit dudes!!!

Mijn advies

I had to order the cable without the bracket (the one with the bracket was out of stock) but the install was easy... Save yourself $10 & buy just the cable without the bracket...

Migrate all your files to the new HD in the same OS i.e. Lion to Lion, Snow Leapord to Snow Leapord then upgrade to Mavericks... I got glitches & permission issues because I upgraded the OS first then tried to migrate my files - wasted a day then had to start all over again by wiping the new HD clean & starting all over.